The Reverend Thomas Horne, the Showland Parson
Reverend Thomas Horne
His background for this job was suitable in that he had spent the first twelve years of his life in a van travelling from fair to fair. From the age of three he was parading on a showfront dressed in a bearskin, encouraged by his father to kick up his legs and shout "Sugar!" After the desertion of his father he continued his education on the fair by selling novelties and toys, and eventually travelled a penny bazaar around the Lancashire Wakes with his brother. His education on the fair continued when he became doorman in Mrs. Williams' Waxworks show, and he went on to become actor, and finally partner, in an Illusion show.
He left the fairground to join the Society of St. John and trained as a priest. Upon hearing about the Moveable Dwelling Bill put forward by George Smith in 1889, Thomas Horne started a vigorous campaign in the press against Smith's proposed legislation. Thomas Horne travelled throughout the country, preaching to the showmen, and devoting time and attention to getting new members from the travelling fraternity; in one year alone he travelled over 12,000 miles, visiting fairs as far apart as Penzance in Cornwall to Ayr in Scotland.
Whenever and wherever the showfolk or their calling was attacked, he stood for them and fought their battles.
Until his death in 1918, Thomas Horne was the main spokesman for the fairground community. With his education, training as a priest, and family association with the fairground, he became the ideal representative of the travelling showmen. He did much to safeguard the future of the old Van Dwellers Association and presented a respectable image of the fairground to its negaters. As a man of God his testimony on behalf of the showmen would hardly have been called into question.
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